The maximum braking deceleration which may be obtained by braking of the front wheel on a bicycle and in lightweight motorcycles is limited by the "nose-over" of the vehicle and rider when the moment of the force of deceleration of the rider's body mass with respect to the ground contact point of the front wheel exceeds the stabilizing moment of the weight of the rider's body also with respect to the same point. For the usual bicycle design, the allowable deceleration force is approximately one-half the earth's gravitational force before nose-over occurs and this is substantially independent of the weight of the rider. There therefore exists a need for a brake capable of providing automatically no more than the maximum allowable deceleration force substantially independent of the manually applied braking force when the braking force exceeds that which would produce the desired maximum deceleration.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide such a deceleration-force-controlled brake.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a brake which is lightweight and inexpensive and hence suitable for use on a bicycle.